Spatial Mismatch and the Share of Black, Hispanic, and White Students Enrolled in Charter Schools

This descriptive study by Patrick Denice discusses the correlation between charter school attendance and local residential segregation by race. Using Common Core Data (CCD) on elementary and middle school students in the 2011-2012 and 2016-2017 school years in 366 metropolitan areas, the author finds a moderate positive correlation between residential segregation and the percentage of Black and Hispanic students attending charter schools (rs=0.59 and 0.36, respectively). For White students, this correlation is moderate and negative. This means that more Black and Hispanic students are attending charter schools instead of traditional neighborhood schools in municipalities with high degrees of residential segregation and that the opposite is true for White students.